PART TWO: RESPONSIBILITY & ACCOUNTABILITY
Heh everyone, welcome back. I added that pic above to show you the surrounding area of Campo La Joya, unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of the Indian slave labor in the fields bent over; men, women and children, getting sprayed with pesticides from low flying aircraft as they sweat it out in the fields over those green beans, tomatoes and asparagus you are serving on your table.
Before we get into responsibility, accountability and the question of ethics, I'd like to clarify a couple of things. First is, I bet you ask any resident of Campo La Joya what they think of the Pabloff's, and they will tell you that they are Saints. The ones who haven't sold out and ran for their lives won't be able to comment, nor will the ones who are just plain financially trapped, living off social security or SSI and have nowhere else to go.
So, let's take a look at the demography of Campo La Joya/Jolla. It was set up in the 1950's as a fishing and camping and drinking place, and it was always rough. That generation swilled it down, so substance abuse was always prevalent. Word got out, and pretty soon more and more alcoholics showed up, with trailers and families in tow. Eventually what evolved was a mixture of run down trailers and modest brick homes, giving way to more elaborate upscale homes as the years rolled by.
Initially it was a financial struggle for the Pabloff's, but over the years their wealth amassed to other properties, and even a gas station in Ensenada. So, it was a symbiotic relationship between the gringos and the Pabloffs, but the Pabloffs prospered.
Absolutely and not to take any credit away from the family, Sr. Pabloff graded and put in the streets and the wells and the waterlines. But truthfully, it ended there. Now, that was what, 50 years ago? And, the attitude was and still is, if they drink their brains out who cares? They can put a trailer down or a house, but after that, we wash our hands of it. And, that is exactly what happened and still happens to this day. There is no sense of and there never was a sense of stewardship.
There is simply no accountability or responsibility, even though now of course, the Pabloff's plug La Jolla as a family destination. Do you think they would like taking their extended families to a dirty and unsafe place, crawling with low lifes, ex-convicts, con men and women and drug dealers and users?
Currently,the folks who adore the Pabloff's are generally pretty well- off Americans, with plenty of money to spare and wearing blinders. They are not concerned over pollution, nor are they concerned about human rights. They tend to look the other way at the realities of Punta Banda, while they flash their gold and talk about by gone days of their lives in Redondo Beach and Orange County. Many of them are speculators and greedy American real estate people snapping up property in La Jolla, developing it, and making huge profits. Speaking of real estate people, you do not need a real estate agency or person to sell your house or trailer at Campo La Jolla. Simply list it, free of charge, on the net; your buyer and yourself simply sign the lease agreement, take it to the office and it is a done deal. Let's, if nothing else, eliminate these greedy American Real Estate people who are laughing all the way to the bank as they take out 6 % of your profits. www.bajaquest.com is an excellent resource.
Others are not only are receiving USA disability benefits, but have turned their homes into bed and breakfasts joints and are raking in the dough during tourist season, at the tune from $50.00 - to $100.00 a night, UNLICENSED. Think that money is declared? Some of these people even maintain websites advertising that they will provide "concierge" service. Concierge service? To where? Maneadero? And for the record, these people don't look disabled to me, I've seen them bouncing around on the beach and doing work on their house. What a scam.
I just have to mention this: there is a group of Americans, so much wanting to separate themselves from the other La Jolla "riff-raff", that they have actually renamed one of the areas "Lomas La Jolla." On no, they don't live at Campo La Jolla, they live at "Lomas La Jolla." Kind of makes you wonder why they did that. What problems did they see in the Camp which compelled them to make a distinction between where they live and where everyone else lives? Weird, huh?
Presently, many of these folks came down with Ronald Reagan bumper stickers on their cars, and they voted for George Bush. They will roll their their eyes and say,"...but look what we do for the Folklorio Group, look what we do with our scholarship program." Well, let me tell you something, it is nothing, a drop in the bucket, having little to do with real social change or workers rights. But, I guess they are convinced that sending the local young people to the private Medical School in Ensenada for four to six years to attain the equivalent of a Nurses Aid Degree in the States, able to barely eek out a living after graduation fits into the trickle down economic mindset quite nicely. After all, you don't want to really educate them, that would be dangerous.
Then, there are the Fundamentalists. I think these folks became so disoriented and freaked out by the reality of Punta Banda they just quickly found the Lord and buried their heads in the sand waiting for salvation.
And not one of these Americans, not one, helped the Garcia-Valterra family when Donancianno was so sick. Donancianno was the sweeetest and most gentle man who ever walked this earth. His favorite song was the old 1950's tune "Donna", and every once in while you could hear him humming it quietly. Remember? "... I once had a girl, and Donna was her name....since she left me, I've never been the same, cause I loved my girl; Donna, where can you be, where can you be?" And there would be a little twinkle in his eye, and he would be so shy and embarrassed if you caught him, but then you'd just have to start singing along with him, and it was magic. He had a heart condition, an enlarged heart, which could have been operable in the States had any of these Americans ever bothered to ask, but they didn't. As non-residents, we & others took him to the Flying Samaritans and Doctors. Donancianno was only 26 years old, his job was to pick up the trash of the Americans at Campo La Jolla. He lived right next door to the Americans, he was their vecino. So he picked up their trash for years,barely able to get through a work day because of his health condition, but he got through, berated by Sr. Pabloff while he worked and then he just collapsed and died. Not one of these Americans in Campo La Jolla attended his funeral or burial. Not one of these so-called Christians offered to purchase him a headstone, he was buried in a plain pine casket on the rocky mountainside overlooking the sea. Great work Campo La Jolla and Pabloff's, tell us how great your charity programs are as you try to convince yourselves you are such philanthropists. It is shameful.
So, the accountability of the Gringos is basically to themselves, their church, their theatre group. There is no assimilation,they have not created drug treatment centers or made modern technological assets available to the young people of the community at large. the zeitgeist is "us and them" amongst themselves, and "us and them" between themselves and the local Mexican population. Both the Pabloff's and the Americans who live at La Jolla are guilty of self serving motivations.
And none of these groups and sub-groups of residents like the seasonal campers, who for the most part are Mexican-American, not guerros, escaping the god awful heat and smog and crime of the inner cities of Los Angeles and beyond.
It is unfair to these people not to be aware of the dangers of this area, to be fooled into thinking that this is a clean and safe place, because it is not. And it is unfair to these people, who seem to have a more balanced perception of political wrongdoing to not know just how horrible the Pabloff's treat the Mexican workers. Caesar Chavez would be ashamed to think that the Mexican-American communities from the United States are pouring thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars into an extremely abusive till.
Most of the workers at Campo La Jolla make LESS than if they worked at a Maquiladora. We have witnessed workers tearing down old delapitated asbestos roofs, and buildings with their bare hands with no protective measures in place. We have witnessed workers spraying the area, unprotected, with pesticides. Come on, this isn't the jungle of Burma, it is a short way from the Border and the Pabloff's know better! You do the math: you will pay yearly in fees and lease money close to $2,500.00 on a double lot and these people cannot provide security for their patrons, pick up the trash, clean up the environment, maintain a decent fire department or provide safety measures for their underpaid workers? I admit, those figures are from seven years ago, by now, they have probably increased. Now, times that by how many houses there? 400? 500? Yet, the Pabloffs who live like the poorest people on the planet and project themselves as simple obreros have the most expensive race cars I have ever seen. And get this, the Pabloff's have set it up as a corporation so that they will not be liable to pay unemployment benefits. Case in point: Alvino who worked for the Pabloff's for nearly 30 years, asked for a raise. When they wouldn't give it to him, he quit, but could not receive the benefits due him because of the Pabloff corporate status.
Now that is just plain selfish, and exacerbates every aspect of social problem in Mexico, not to mention one of the reasons why millions of Mexicans are fleeing and crossing the Border illegally to work in the United States.
Ask around next time you are down there, ask the Mexican people in Maneadero, in Cantu and in Punta Banda just how generous old Don Pabloff is, and then rethink supporting his enterprise. After all, would you vote for George Bush?
This becomes all of our responsibility. It is our duty not to support places which not only misrepresent themselves, wreck havoc on the environment, but ones which practise unsafe and unfair labor conditions. And as far as camping goes, shoot, Erendira down the road is a thousand times nicer than La Jolla.
The future of Campo La Jolla? Like all the Campos up and down the coast, the days are numbered. I am sure some developer somewhere, maybe even Donald Trump, is working on a very sweet deal for the Pabloffs, so don't be foolish and invest, and if you are smart, get out while you can.
Goodnight, from Baja California.
Labels: CAMPO LA JOLLA PUNTA BANDA PART TWO
